“The regulatory environment makes it very difficult to do what we do,” says Mr. Depping, who last summer saw his bank hit with an enforcement order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp…

“The No. 1 complaint that we hear from community bankers is that they feel that regulators have gone one step too far and are choking off lending,” says Paul Merski, chief economist at the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group that represents small banks.